Published in 2012, this book by Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis, offers insightful analysis and exploration of its subject matter. It presents a unique perspective that contributes to the existing body of knowledge, making it a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners alike. The content is designed to engage readers and stimulate further discussion on the themes presented.
Lifestyle revolution charts how class culture, which many thought would be dissolved by mass consumption, was remade in the postwar period from flat-pack furniture, Mediterranean cuisine and lifestyle magazines - as a world of symbolic goods became an intimate environment alive with new feelings and attitudes. -- .
Exploring the mundane aspects of everyday life, this study delves into objects, work, media, and food, revealing a vibrant tapestry of passionate experiences hidden within. Ben Highmore invites readers to reconsider the significance of the ordinary, uncovering the emotional and cultural richness that often goes unnoticed in our daily routines.
'House' has long been synonymous with 'home': the significance of four walls and a roof lies far deeper than simply shelter from the elements. A house stands for sanctuary, family, belonging, privacy and our pasts: even when standardised as a 'Barratt Home' or modern housing estate, every house bears the stamp of the people who live in it, remaining a bastion of quirky individualism.The Great Indoors is the first cultural history of the family home in the twentieth century, comparable to Rachel Hewitt's Map of a Nation or Joe Moran's Queuing for Beginnners. As society has changed, so has the house: the hall - which had its finest hour during the middle ages, when families and their servants ate, slept and socialised there together - has now been relegated to a mere passageway, only useful for getting to other (more private) rooms. Highmore shows how houses display the currents of class, identity and social transformation that are displayed in the arrangement and use of the family home. And he also offers an engaging and stimulating peek through the curtains to explain why the fridge is used as a communication centre, how the loo (or toilet) inspired its very own literary genre and what your furniture arrangement reveals about how you function as a family.
'House' represents more than just shelter; it embodies sanctuary, family, belonging, and our pasts. This book serves as a field guide to the private life of the family home in the twentieth century, exploring its social, cultural, and personal history.
Focusing on the concept of culture, the book argues for understanding it as an approach to phenomena rather than a fixed definition. Ben Highmore defends the value of cultural analysis in today's media-saturated environment, providing insights into the category of 'culture' and its implications. The work emphasizes the practical applications of cultural approaches, highlighting their potential to enhance our understanding of the world around us.
While most famously associated with numerous mid-century architects, Brutalism was a style of visual art that was also adopted by painters, sculptors, printmakers, and photographers. Taking into account Brutalist work by eminent artists such as Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi, as well as lesser-known practitioners like Nigel Henderson and Magda Cordell, this volume focuses on a ten-year period between 1952 and 1962 when artists refused a programmatic set of aesthetics and began experimenting with images that had no set focal point, using non-traditional materials like bombsite debris in their work, and producing objects that were characterized by wit and energy along with anxiety, trauma, and melancholia. This original study offers insights into how Brutalism enabled British artists of the mid-20th century to respond ethically and aesthetically to the challenges posed by the rise of consumer culture and unbridled technological progress. Published in association with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art